The Sun. — London, England, 1864-01-04 00:00:00

Sir Stafford H, Northcote on Art Progress in England, ever come when a foreigner could point to the map, and drawing a line say, "?how, north of that line, or east of that line, there is the energetic, the pro gressive, the enlightened part of England, and south cr west of that line is the dark and unenergetic and dull part of England." Such a period I hope never to see. I hope rather to see all parts of Eng land, our own part especially, bearing their part in that which is for the good of the nation. (Hear,) And I venture to say this movement, which is now claiming our sympathies, is one which has a very strong claim upon the national interests. I venture to say this because England has taken up art edu cation advisedly, and is reaping the most signal benefits from it. (Hear.) When I say that I do not wish to go back over the old ground over which I have trodden before upon occasions of this sort, and to tell you the old story how it was these schools originally came to be supported. But I would wish to call your attention for a moment to the general results which this movement has, I be lieve, had upon the trade and industry of the country. There is something very remarkable in the present condition of the trade of the country. Yln are all generally aware that there never has been a time in which the trade of the country has flourished so greatly as during the last 20 yeare. I dark say you are aware that even at the present moment, under circumstances of very great difficulty, under the circumstances of the paralysis of that which is the great branch of our whole industry, the cotton trade, the trade of England is as great, or ,even greater than it was before. (Hear.) I believe that when the returns of 1863 come to be made up it will be found that the exports of British produce are larger in the past year than in any year on re cord. (Hear.) That is extremely satisfactory. But what is the cause of it ? I do not wish to weary you with analysing all the figures ; but I had the other day occasion to look at some returns presented to the House of Commons quite recently, out of which I took some figures so remarkable that I will request your permission to read them. They are some figures comparing the exports of England generally between the years 1840 and 1862. And I find this, that in the year 1840 the value of British manufactures exported in a finished state was nearly £36,000,000, whereas in 1862 it was upwards of £82,000,000, the increase being about 127 per cent. (Hear, hear.) That is a story which we ail know, and very satisfactory it is to the country at large. But I wished to go a little further. I wanted to see how far that expor tation was due, or could in any way be attributed to the exertions which have been made in England of late years to improve the taste of our manufac tures, Therefore, I went a little carefully into those statistics, and endeavoured to ascertain what had been the increase in those articles in the production of which taste is particularly required. It is not very easy to separate those articles, because, of course, we know in a great many cases with regard to cotton goods and woollens and many other things that they are all put together in the returns; and yet a large number of them may be articles upon which a great deal of labour and a groat deal of taste have been bestowed. Therefore, all I could do was to select from the list of general exports a few artic:es which I believe you will admit are for the moat part articles upon the production of which taste is particularly employed. I took the articles of carriages ; of earthenware and porcelain, which is an item particularly interesting, because it is in her earthenware and porcelain that England has especially made progress of late years; furni ture, cabinet and upholstery wares ; glass manu factures, in which a great deal of beautiful work has of late been done ; haberdashery and millinery, which I suppose would depend a good deal upon the taste of the country; pictures, plate, jewelry, and watches: silk manufactures, paper hanging, and toys—and taking these articles, upon which, as a body, I presume our taste is particularly employed, I found the value of those exported in 1840 was I:2,700,000, whereas in 1862 it was just above £8,000,000, showing an increase of £5,250,000, or about 196 per cent—(hear, hear, and applause—so that I discovered that whi'e the general advance of our manufactures in these twenty years had been rather more than 125 per cent., it had been very nearly 200 per cent. in those particular articles which demand the exercise of taste. Now, I think . it is not a little remarkable that during the very time in which we have admitted the goods of all other nations who were supposed to be so much our superiors in taste to compete freely with us—while we admitted the goods of France and of all other countries where art has been encouraged for so many years to come in free competition with our own, we, nevertheless, have been able to export those particular goods in respect of which we com peted with them—goods in the production of which taste enters so largely—able to meet our rivals, and to beat them upon the open ground. (Applause.) If we had in any way increased our exports merely by sending out raw materials, half manufactured articles, or articles requiring no taste at all, but only cheapness of production, we might have said that England excels in having a greater quantity of coal anti iron, and those other elements which conduce to cheapness; but when we aro able to beat other countries in articles dependent upon the taste be stowed upon their production, then I say you may look with gratification on the work which we have been doing in this country during the last 22 years for the encouragement of the national taste. hear.) lam taking up a period which exactly syn. chronizes with the movement for the Schools o Design. It was in 1840, as Sir John Bowring wil tell you, that the first steps were taken for the esta blishment of Schools of Design in this country, and, looking at what has been done since, I say the result is not a little remarkable in that respect. It proves that the work we have been doing has not been an idle one; that it is a work not unsuited to the genius of the English people; that the English people, if fairly taught, are as capable of develop• ing taste and of producing works of good taste as any other people under the sun. (Hear, hear.) And I maintain that we have bestowed our time and our labour well upon this work which we have been carrying on, and that there is every encouragement for us to carry it on still further. (Hear, hear.) I have ventured to put the matter before you in a national point of view, and to appeal to you and the citizens of Exeter to take your part in this great national undertaking, which I am quite satisfied is of very great importance to the nation at large ; but if we come down from the general, the high ground, the national good, I will appeal toyou also on behalf of your own sons and daughters and the people of your own city, and ask, is it not your duty to give them the advantages of the educatipn here afforded to them? Just consider what those advantages are ; what it is in your power to do for the children and the young people of this city and neighbourhood. We look upon the education in art in two points of view: you look upon it as developing high genius, which is given but to few ; you may look upon it also as giving a very useful educatiOn to the great bulk of mankind who have no claims to higher and diviner genius ; but if you look at it under either point of view you will see how great is its advantage to young people. You will find in the lives of per sons possessed of real genius and who have struggled and fought against great difficulties and have at tained to eminence in science or in artohow very much they gained by the few aids which they did hero and there receive; and you cannot help think ing, and sadly too, how many there must have been who, perhaps with equal genius, have yet wanted those few helps, those timely aids, and have thus been lost to the country and to themselves. (Hear.) And we say it is a great blessing that in schools like these we may here and there be able to bold out to the struggling genius a hand that may enable him to climb the ladder. Even if that was all we were able to do these institutions would be well worthy cur encouragement and support. But, then, when you consider that that is not all they do, but that they also render great assistance by giving a good sound edd cation to the great mass of those who attend them, I think you will see they are valuable ; for double art education is by no means to be despised even in the case of those who are never likely to become great or distinguished artists. Because, what do they gain ? In the first place many handicrafts men and others can by the training they receive here become better workmen and better able to execute deeigns set before them, They themselves EXETER, Saturday. At the annual meeting of the Exeter School of Art, held last evening, the chair was taken by the president, Sir Stafford Northcote, who delivered a long and interesting address on the subject of art education, and of the grants made by Government to the schools of art throughout the country. Sir S. NORTHCOTE, after referring to circumstances connected with the Exeter School, said,—There is one other point which has been mentioned in the report upon which I am bound to say a few words ; but it is a point upon which I wish to touch as lightly as possible. Your attention has been called to a change which has taken place in the arrange ments which Government has made with regard to this school; and there is no doubt the alteration of the minutes of the Committee of Council with re gard to the schools of art throughout the kingdom will tell very seriously upon many of the masters of those schools, and especially, I am sorry to say, it will tell upon those who are most deserving among them. Especially it will tell upon such masters as our own excellent master, Mr. Birkmyer, tecause the old system was this—that the Government required the masters to pass in one or more grades o f art. There were different grades, different classes—for drawing, and for painting, and for modelling, and so forth. If a master passed in one grade he had a fee of ten guineas a year allowed to him ; if ho passed in two grades, 20 guineas ; if in three grades, 30 guineas, and so forth. But now the whole of that is swept away, and a single uniform fee of 10 guineas is to be granted for the report upon the school, and this will be given to those who have passed in one grade in the examina tions as well as to those who have passed in four or five grades. Now that certainly seems to be a hard ship, and it tells particularly hard upon such a mas ter as we have at present the good fortune to possess, because Mr. Birkmyer has passed in several grades, and the effect of this upon him will be very serious. The Government also proposes to make certain alte rations with regard to the free students—to sweep them away, in fact, very much in the same manner in which they are sweeping away the pupil teachers in a great many of our national schools. Tee change is very much analogous to that taking place in na tional schools ; and it is, at the first moment at all events, felt as a very great hardship by the teachers that they are thrown out of that which they had expected, and which they had been legitimately en titled to expect, from the arrangements made by the Government. It is very hard upon them, and they feel it to be so, that they should suddenly have their position altered. At the same time there is a good deal to be said on the side of the Government. There is the necessity to introduce some economy in the administration of this large grant which the Government makes for the promotion of education and of science and art ; and the time is coming when it will be necessary that some alteration should be made in the terms upon which these grants have been given. Ido not wish now to enter into the controversy which has arisen with respect to the particular mode which they ought to adopt. I only wish to remind you that it does fall very hardly, whether it be right or not on the part of the Government to take this step, upon such mas ters as our excellent master, Mr. Birkmyer. And that circumstance affords an additional reason for inducing Ds to make every effort to prevent his being a sufferer. He and Mr. Wig zell (his predecessor) have done great things for this school,—they have raised it to a highly creditable position. They took it in hand at a time when there was no it:ea in the city that we could fill a school at all, or support anything of the kind ; and they have shown that it is possible to fill a school ; that it is possible to produce very cre ditable results; and they have produced a school which, I am sure, Exeter ought to be proud of. (Hear, hear.) We know, and Government will probably tell us, that the change which they have made in withdrawing acme of the support hitherto granted has been made upon this principle—that they gave a certain amount of support in order to set going the system oC education throughout the country ; but now that it had been sot going, and now that the country is aware of its value, it is time they should draw back their hands and leave the country to support that which has been started among them, and to carry it on by themselves. They will s.:y also, no doubt, " We are proposing to pay you by results; attain your results and you wilt rectivn as much as you received before." Bat in order to do that you must remember we want en_ ierared space; because you must be very well aware that in this school we are quite cramped for room, and that until we can be transplanted into a larger room it will be impossible for theechool to devetope itself as it ought to do. (Heir.) Now, lam in great hopes that when this Museum and School of Art, which we are always talking about, and which we begin now to see dimly looming before us—when we see that turned from a shadow into a reality — then I think we shall begin to see better days for the School of Art, because we then shall be able to grow and expand ourselves as we ought to do. I hope by that change we shall get into a position that will enable us to overcome the difficulties of our position ; but in the meantime you must help us, It is impossible we can get over the next two or three yeasts satisfactorily unless we receive greater pecuniary assistance from the citizens of Exeter than hitherto. (Hear.) We find everybody is now willing to acknowledge the services of the school, but when it comes to the practical point of asking them to subscribe, then I am sorry to say we find a weak part. I hope that by printing and circu lating this annual report we shall obtain a larger measure of support than hitherto. I do hope that when this matter is prominently brought before the citizens of Exeter they will take a noble and liberal view of the question. Ido hope they will not look at it in the narrow way in which we sometimes hear it spoken of—that we shall not hear it said, " Well, Exeter is not a manufacturing town, Exeter has not the same interest in the maintenance of a school of art that Manchester, or Birmingham, or any of the other great cities of industry in the north have." I hope the citizens of Exeter will take a larger and wider view of the question than that, because this is a great national work. (Hear, hear.) It is a work in which we are interested as members of the English nation ; and I do feel there is a great deal incumbent on us not to lose our place among the people of this country—not to allow ourselves to be put aside us ye.in g the unprogressive and nn interested par t s 4f the nation—not to allow the northern and midland counties, the great manufac turing counties, to take precedence of us and claim a monopoly of interest in all that is interesting to the nation. (Applause.) This matter is one that often weighs upon me. I think there is a great deal more in it than appears on the surface. You remember ,some years ago there were persons, and persona of some influence in this country, too, who used to hold this sort of language; they would say of England, - What is it you mean by England ? England is the manufacturing counties—the nor. them and midland counties ; as for the south and west—the agricultural districts—we have nothing to do with them." We heard that sort of language used. There were persons who seemed disposed actually to establish a separate community in the northern and midland parts of England, and to leave us in the south-west behind, as if we had no interest in them. Now I soy that is a position in which we in the south and west ought never to acquiesce. (Hear, hear.) It would be suicidal on our part, end most injurious io this country, if we were at all to allow ourselves to be left behind in any great improvement for the general good of the nation. (Applause.) I say the great strength cf this country depends upon the union of all classes among us. It depends upon our being all energetic, upon o ar doing what is good for the whole nat ion, d ceasing to look merely to local and selfish in terests. (Hear, hear.) Remember this, we are all Englishm e n —eve are all interested in what is g ood for the welfa re and good of England. And if this movement, or any other movement, is shown to be good for the natio n at large, we ou ght to consider . ourselves equally interested in it as the people of the north, or the manufacturing cr any o ther part otEcgl and It will be a sad end fatal d ay for England it the, time should .ear, may perhaps rise, without being vary great I geniuses, to become designers or improvers of do- I signs in the manufactures to which they devote I themselves. Even where that is not directly the While the best parts of Mr. Thackeray's regular novels belong to the class of refined comedy, his Christmas stories his contributions to Tune 4, and his minor writings in gene ral,oveiflow with the gayest and wildest humour. No mo dern parodies approach in excellence to the imitations of Mr. Disraeli and Sir Bulwer Lytton in " Codlingsby" and "George de Barnwell." The profound philosophy of the interesting murderer's argument to prove that he had com mitted no crime because he felt no remorse, is the more ad mirable because it approaches the limits of possible sophistry. Major Gahagan, "the slayer of elephants," furnishes a subject for one of the wittiest of burlesque romances. In "Rebecca and Rowena," where Mr. Thackeray vented his humorous irritation against the heroine of "Ivanhoe," his unfailing dislike to famouswarriors is expressed in the melo dramatic ferocity of Richard Coeur de Lion. Like all great comic writers, he derived a special amusement from certain favourite types of character. Of the mendacious Irish ad venturer he was never tired, and Barry Lyndon was only the possible or credible forerunner of The Mulligan. The Jeames of the " Diary" and the Charles of the "Yellow plash Papers" are still more fabulous representatives of the imaginary London footman; but Mr. Thackeray knew how to produce the most amusing results by adopting the gratuitous supposition that uneducated magniloquence was combined with a practice of phonetic spelling. He always took pleasure in playing with the language of which he had obtained perfect mastery. His puns and his unexpected rhymes were surprisingly ingenious, and the flowing metre of his humorous ballads was not far removed from the music of genuine poetry. His ordinary style was in a high degree pure and idiomatic, and his habitual cultivation of the nice ties of language taught him to appreciate, in his maturer years, the classical studies which he had too much under valued in his youth. He sometimes said that his highest aspiration would be to produce a few short poems as finished and perfect as the Odes of Horace.—Saturday _Review. HIS LAST ILLNESS. As there are many stories in circulation respecting the circumstances which immediately preceeded Mr. Thackeray's death, the following facts, which were obligingly given us by one of his most intimate personal friends, may not prove uninteresting. It appears that although generally enjoying good health, he was at intervals subject to severe spasms of the stomach, which caused violent retching and nausea, and lett him in a state of utter prostration often for hours after the first violence of the attack had passed away. On the night of his death, his mother, who slept overhead, heard him got up and walk about his room, but was not alarmed, as this was a habit with her son when he felt any symptoms of an attack coming on. In the morning his valet came into Mr. Thackeray's bedroom as usual, and saw him lying on his back quite still, withhis arms spread over the coverlet, bu he took nonotice, as he also was accustomed to see his mas ter thus after one of his stomach attacks. He brought some coffee and set it down beside the bed, and it was only when he returned after an interval and found that the cup had not been tasted, that a sudden alarm seized him, and he disco vered that his master was dead. Mr. Thackeray had in fact been seized when his mother heard him get up in the night and walk about the room, and the violence of the attack, it is supposed, brought on the effusion en the brain, which, as the post-mortem examination showed, was the immediate cause of death. Mr. Joseph Durham, the emi nent sculptor, has undertaken to preserve the likeness of his deceased friend in a marble bust, which he means to pre sent to the Garrick Club. —Daily News. THE PUBLICATION OF " VANITY FAIR," At last, set Thacseray in his place among the first novelists of Europe, and among the men of letters most sought after by opulent and titled personages at home and abroad. It is instructive to observe how the class of persons whom writers like Thackery love to anslyze and to satirize---fools of quality—rich, idle folk who want to be amused —free-living men and women, whose morals would the least bear exposure, have alway been the most eager to welcome, to cherish, and to admit into the fold of intimacy the very guests and observers, " those authors," whom they have the most reason to dread . —4 henceum. "AND THERE CAME tip A LION OUT OF JUDAH,' were Miss Bront first words after standing for some time before Lawrence's likeness of Thackeray. She meant that the face expressed first to her mind a deep " rage " at the treachery of human nature, in which a generous nobility and also a destructive fever of almost animal spite were blended in equal proportions. And she spoke with a true literary instinct. The peculiar power of Thackeray's genius lies in the strange effervescence of these widely different elements,—a profound tenderness of feeling, a pathos of more than feminine delicacy and more than masculine com prehensiveness, with a power of cynical fury which is always impelling him to spring upon the selfishness and duplicities of human nature and tear them to pieces before our eyes in that animal transport of retributive passion which the lion symbolises to the imagination. HIS MELANCHOLY case I am quite satisfied there is no kind of educa tion that is better for the general education of man. Education in drawing conduces to make men cer tain and correct in what they do. It induces them to do that in the general education which writing does in their intellectual education. It conduces to make what a man does know certain. How often do we see that a man if you explain anything to him thinks he understands you, and that he would perhaps give you a tolerably good answer if you put questions to him; and yet if you ask him to write down the matter upon which you have been discoursing it appears that he does not thoroughly understand it. Just in the same way is it with drawing. A man takes notice of an object, and thinking he knows all about it, goes away. But if he tries to draw it, then he finds that there are many points of it which he had not noticed, or of which he has taken an inc3rrect impression. Draw • ing, therefore, gives a man correctness of observa tion, which is one of the most valuable qualities of education. (Hear, hear.) This view is confirmed by the opinion of others who are better able to judge than myself. I was very much struck, not long ago, in the course of an inquiry which I and others have been carrying on as to the public schools of the country, by the answer of the very distin guished head master of a very celebrated school. He was asked with regard to drawing, whether it was taught in hie school. On his replying that a number of boys had learnt drawing, he was asked whether he found that the boys who had done so were iu any way assisted in their classical studies by it. That was a question which seemed rather curious at first, because it was thought that drawing might take them from their classical studies. The answer was that he had not the slightest doubt they were assisted in their classical studies, because it enabled them to realise to themselves many of those things of which the classical poets wrote; that they were accustomed to draw them from descriptions br from pictures which were set before them ; and that they thus obtained a much more accurate knowledge than others not able to draw. That is the case with all those studies which conduce to greater accuracy of observation : they improve the mind—they im prove the intelligence of those who prosecute them. (Hear, hear.) Therefore, I say, this is a study which upon every ground deserves our support and assistance; and I do hope the time is now long gone by when people would look down with a contemp• tuous sneer at drawing, as if it were no real part of education. (Hear, hear.) I hope it is assuming a serious and important place in the course of English education which it will never lose. I hope that what we have done will never go back, but rather go on gaining ground. (Loud cheers.) THE SON. LONDON, MONDAY EVEMNG, JANUARY' 4, 1864, creates him no enemies, for he does nothing with He has resigned ease and privacy and the social sourness or obstinacy; and his being unconfined to delight of reigning supreme in his own sphere, not modes and forms, make him but the readier and that he may effect a great and glorious end, or asto more capable to oblige and please all who know nish his cournrymen by any signal at he and etriking a. aim." In this temper of u niversa l b enevolence Dr. benefits conferred on them, but th may do 1 4e com etenced his speech by bowing profoundly to work w hich w ill be almost unnoticed, which will T4O i ad i e4 9 fplie. ev, for he is an advocate of wcman's force him into many petty contests, and will only ve the gentler sexvoters as in a minute degree, and by slow step s, do ar.y good. rights, and would L.: ..,,, : sems them as fit to sit in His reward is the knowledge that this is all that he well as tax-payers, Frankly admitting can do for his country, and that what he can do for St. Stephen's as on a throne. his antagonist to be a good Cann thought Dr. Lee his country is precisely what his country happens t h ou ght that the Tories oug ht not to n :onopolize most to need now, and what no one else could do Buckinghamshire, and wished that there were anore for her. candidates so as to give the constituency a wide: choice, and make the election a sort of sweepstakes. After this we do not need to be assured that the worthy squire is not actuated by personal ambition, has not a single paid agent, nor even " the Man in the Moon" retained as a canvasser. On ordinary subjects, such as the cession of the lonian Isles, the reduction of expenditure, and excessive game-pre serving, he spoke with m oderation and good sense, and if we trace something of the old whimsical sim plicity in the desire to make " S. G. 0." Bishop of St. Alban's, we are more pleased to find that at the present moment he has kept himself free from reli gious intolerance, is pleased with the elevation of a Papist to the bench, and recognises " the fearless outspokenness" of Dr. Coleuses, though he does not share his conclusions. Dr. Lea is, we believe, a tee totaller, and if he confines his partisanship to an attempt to induce all drunkards voluntarily to take the pledge, there can be no harm in that ; and even his pet anti tobacco theory is one which he shares not only with King James 1., but with the late Sir Benjamin Brodie. 'Dais, of course, was the theme for all the witticisms, not only of the Tory speakers but of the crowd before the hustings. When Dr. Lee boldly avowed that he gave up Mr. Gladstone because instead of abolishing the tea-duty he had reduced that on tobacco, some wit in the mob shouted out, " What would you give the poor man in lieu of his beer and 'baccy ?" Promptly the Doctor answered, smiling blandly as he spoke, " Why what I now offer you, a tract," and imme diately began tendering his anti-tobacco tracts to the High Sheriff and the gentlemen around. And before the laughter, which this sally called out, had died away, the venerable speaker completed his victory by adding, with ineffable innocence and sincerity, " And if any one present is ready to sub scribe to the anti-tobacco pledge, I shall be most happy to take down his name. Tnat day, at least, the Doctor was triumphant to the end, for the show of hands was decided to be in his favour. Writing before the result of the election is known, we are not sanguine that this victory will be repeated at the hustings. Yet it would be well that Buck inghamshire should not be quite given over to Tory ism, and if the electors would not quite so tamely submit to the dictation of the great landowners. Nor in days when men are ear nest and propor tionably hard, would the House of Commons be any loser if a Sir Roger de Coverley were once again to enter its walls. Dr. Lee's crotchets could do no more harm than Colonel Sibthorp's violence, or Mr. Drummond's apostleship; and the sight of that generous courtesy, that kindly benevolente, that naïve simplicity, coupled with learning, station, and integrity, is something by which all may profit. The Buckinghamshire election may, perhaps, in a party sense, be a hollow thing, but it has at least given the world a perfect specimen of how an elec tion should be conducted at Christmas. SATURDAY REVIEW.—It is to the possibility of avoiding henceforth the small wars which France has on hand almost as surely and as constantly as England has, that M. Thiers ostensibly directed his efforts. He did not affect to be able to stop a big war, and he was perhaps doing all he could when he dimly hinted that the European war must be one of singular magnitude and duration. Imperialists coin(' scarcely quarrel with a speaker who promised to pour all the treasures of the country into the lap of its master, if a real occasion should call him to lead France into a great struggle. At the same time, they could do little to diminish the sobering effect of an anticipation that such a war, if once started, might last for years on years. If, however, the Government would but limit the issue of Tree. sury Bonds, it would not venture on little wars which are so small that no one thinks much of them when they are begun, but which throw the finances into disorder and make the wisest of economists de spair. The Mexican war affords an inexhaustible subject of attack on the Government, and as it is the Mexican war that has deranged the plans of M. Fould and swollen the floating debt once more in spite of the extreme measures used to reduce it, no one in the French Chamber can openly favour little wars. The continued uncertainty which attends the issue of the struggle in Mexico, and the endless demands it makes on the resources of France, preach a lesson of economy to which the most ardent adherent of the Government cannot pretend to be deaf. No one, in France or out of it, out conjecture when the Mexican war will cease, or when a, settled government can be expected to afford the French an excuse for retiring, or to pay them for staying. It is in vain to talk of limiting the issue of treasury Bonds when money must be found far so ceaseless a drain, and when fresh debt is being necessarily incurred every minute' hat the champions of ecouotny are speaking. The Government itself cannot determine when little wars will cease, al though it may to a great extent determine when they shall begin. -It seems a eN 9 mparatively harm less request that it should be asked henceforth not to let them begin, and the evil consequences of the ' Mexican expedition made the Chamber acquiesce in this being made by M. Thiers. But it is evident that the Emperor would cerise to be Emperor if he really gave up the power of making little wars at his pleasure. It is because he can put the navies and armies of France in motion when and where he pleases, that his nod is watched for by the world, and that he creates a sense of awe and expectation in the breasts of millions. If he could not decide whet her Catholicism was to triumph on the shores of Cochin China, if he could not raise up and cut down the hopes of the Maronites like grass in summer, if he could not create little Empires for foreign Princes, he would no longer be the mysterious, magical, inscrutable power he affects to be. He is very anxious not to quarrel with France about Mexico, and he, there fore, is inclined that the Government should accept with ostensible patience the doctrines as to little wars which M. Thiers chooses to lay down. But both ho and M. Thiers know perfectly well that it is because in these minor matters, no one calculates how he will act that he excites the hopes, the fears, and the wonder of thousands ; and if he were to re nounce the power of forming and carrying out his private and secret resolutions, he would speedily sink into the miserable obscurity of a constitutional Sovereign. The importance of the return of M. Thiers to political life can be estimated with tolerable accuracy when his speech on the loan is compared with that of the other members of the Opposition.. M. Picard declined to vote for,the loan at all,because to do so was to give an indirect sanction to the Mexican expedition, of which he highly disape proved; and as he was sure that the sum necessary for the payment of past debts would he voted by the majority, he could satisfy his conscience by voting against the loan, and yet rely on other people to take care that the satisfaction given to his private conscience did no public harm. There is always something respectable in conscientiousness of any sort, and the liveliness of a Chamber is augmented by the presence of some members who will never admit of any compromise. But it is not imparcticab!e enthusiast who offer any efficient op position to the daily working of the machinery of despotism. Men like M. Picard keep alive the spirit and courage of France, but they do not guide public opinion towards definite results, the attainment of which would alter in some degree, however slight, the character of the Government, and the refusal of which forces the Government to offer what seems a harsh and unreflecting opposition to moderate and sensible demands. Still less can the fanatics who thick that democracy demands a war on behalf of Poland, and that Democracy must at all costs be obeyed, seriously hamper the action of a powerful and coherent Government. The Em peror is too old a democrat to be frightened at "the oracular utterings of a fictitious democracy. His acquaintance with England, too, must enable him to check the statements which the chief representa tive of democracy in the Chamber, M. Gueroult, offers as aids to French reflection at the present crisis, The enlightened readers of the Opinion Na tionale may be inclined to accept the assurances of its conductor that France, if she embarks in a Con tinental war, need not fear a coalition against her headed by England, as Mr. Pitt, who was the soul of former coalitions, has lived to repent or his error, and is now, at the age of eighty, as mach against coalitions as he used to be for them. But the Em peror may safely trust that oven Frenchmen in gene ral know that this would be a brittle reed to leap on ; and, if it were necessary, he could overwhelm M, Gueroult's argument in the Chamber,by ordering that the elements of modern history be made known to him. Contrasted with men ',ike M. Gueroult, M. Thiers has only that advantage which all men in possession of sense and experience must have over the ignorant spoutcrs of grand political phrases. But when he is compared with the members of the old Opposition, although he has perhaps no supe riority of character or aim, and although M. 011i vier in this debate has shown that be can take as calm and rational and statesmanlike a view of the position of France as any one, yet M. Thiers brings a new element of opposition in his great knowledge of Parliamentary contests, in his tact, and in his sound judgment as to the amount of pre& sure to which the Government can be eaposed with out doing more harm than good. H. has chosen in bis old ago to oke OR biszthuuldun a ' icuv Lyb a t i ks. RECOLLECTIONS OF THACKERAY And Tributes to him. LONDON WILL MISS HIM! When we image to ourselves what London is and what has been its history, it is astonishing how much of what is fondest in our representations consists of recollections of the succesive clusters of eminent men, and erpecially of eminent men of letters, that have there passed their lives. As far back as the days of Chaucer and Gower the tradition begins ; it is but faintly kept up from that period till it bursts forth afresh in the glorious London of Shakespeare, Ben Jenson, and all the Elizabethans; since which time what is London, in the popular notion of its history, but that ever-growing, ever-roaring city in the midst of which company after company of the natural successors of those poetic and dramatic Elizabethans have found their habi tations and inducements, their hard or easy livelihood, and their noted or unnoted graves ? To the Elizabethans succeeded the Wits of the Restoration, apart from whom, in an obscure ontskirt, sat Milton, old and blind ; to these the Wits of Queen Anne's reign ; and to these the Georgians, elder, middle, and later, to the verge of our own times. In each generation, of course, there have been men of literary celebrity, not congregated in London, but distributed over the rest of the land, whether in other cities or in country-neighbourhoods; and sometimes the centre of greatest intellectual power has certainly not been in the metropolis. But, in the main, the greatest quantity of British literary talent, at any one time, has always, for natural reasons, been aggregated in London ; and the con spicuous literary cluster of any one time has consisted of menand women:whom their contemporaries could recognise as Londoners. In our own age, wore expressly than in most others, this has been the case. If we reckon this age from the beginning of our present sovereign's reign in 1337, and if, adopting a collective name that has been proposed, we call the British authors of the last 26 years " the Victo rians," then a more than usuil proportion of these Victo rians have belonged, or are still belonging, to London. It is a cluster to be proud of—a cluster that will shine in our literary history, even when the lustre of the preceding Georgian era of Dr. Samuel Johnson, and that of the earlier era of Queen Anne's Wits, are still remembered in the comparison. Who shall venture to draw up now a com plete list of these eminent Victorians—including alike the historians, the poets, the novelists, the moralists, and the philosophers whom future times are likely to take account of under that designation? Or who so bold as, out of the 40 or 50 of all orders that might compose such a list of the indubitably eminent, to select five or six, and aver, " These aro they that will be looked back upon as the pre-eminent of our era, as the Victorian stars of the greatest magnitude?' We are in the noise aud dust of the present ; the most blatant and sociable have it their own way for a season ; and in the fall and click of a thousand hammers, few can tell who is working in pinchbeck, and who is beating and shaping the finest gold. Time will find out; or, if even rime should not trouble itself to do so, what does it matter? One of our Victorians, however, we can all at this moment speak of with certainty as sure to rank among the pre eminent of that designation, however strict me) , be the posthumous criticism. We have laid him this week in the cemetery of Kensal-green.—The Reader. HIS LAST WORK—LEFT UNFINISHED. We are told in the newspapers that Mr, Thackeray had just rejoiced over the completion of the fourth monthly portion of his story, seeing in it, no doubt, the promise of a work which would not be found, when completed, to fall short even of his fame. It war, we believe, like the Virginians, a story of the times of George I. and George 11. Some months ago it was rumoured that the next work from his pen would relate to an early period of English history— a statement which a bold guesser suhsequently enlarged into the assertion that its scene would be laid in the times of the Anglo-Saxons. Mr. Thackeray was doubtless amused at the paragraeh which made the customary tour through the press of London and the provinces, gravely informing the world that the author of" Esmond," and the " Essays on the Humourists," who had hitherto delighted in the times of elaborate flowing wigs, and swords, and coats with huge lapels, had suddenly betaken himself to those misty days of savage manners and scanty clothing. The rumour, in its unembellished form, was however not without foun dation. Mr. Thackeray had, we believe, recently contem plated writing a story of the days of Henry the Fifth, in which period of our history some accidental bent of his reading had led him to take a special interest. He had even thought of some of its details, and had amused himself in imagination with a grotesque scene in one of the old chro niclers of a famous royal lady, who rode into a fair city of Normandy upon a cow. But the notion was laid aside. His old passion for recreating the life and manners of the last century was too powerful to be resisted, and he finally found himself at home in a story of English life of the old period, in which the elaborate imitation of the style of the Augustan age would not be allowed, as in the "Adventures of Henry Esmond," to interfere with the development of a story of a good and heroic stamp, in the presence of which the old complaints from adverse critics of cynicism and cold ness should be heard no more.—Publishers' Circular. HIS KNOWLEDGE OF CHARACTER Was minute and accurate, but it was confined to the limits of his own experience. He had lived among artists, men of letters, native and foreign adventurers, and in the beat society of London ; but he knew nothing of peasants or artisans, and he never attempted to describe them. The variety of his creations has been under valued, because his later novels were too exclusively occu pied with a single phase of existence ; but the humble clerk who is the hero of the " Great Hoggarty Diamond" is re moved by many degrees in the social scale from the Mar quis of Steyne and Lady Kcw. The artificial ingenuity by which accuracy of costume is preserved in "Esmond" and " The Virginians" might have raised a doubt of Mr. Thackeray's prudence in attempting historical fiction; but the "Luck of Barry Lyndon" contains en admirable pic ture of Continental life in the last century, although the story has failed to obtain popularity in consequence of the error of making the villain of the story, like Smollett's " Count Fathom," also its hero or centre. In Becky Sharp, Mr. Thackeray performed a feat which has rarely been accomplished in fiction, by endowing the creature of his imagination wit h a portion of his own genius and wit. Per haps the reality of life which is imparted to the thoroughly commonplace George Osborne is almost an equally difficult achievement. Caricatures, even when they sym bolise who!cf classes by a skilful exaggeration of their pe culiarities, rank below the natural and breathing portraits of the highest order of artists. In the power of arranging the accessories of scenery and incident, Mr. Thackeray had many superiors, yet there is no more perfect passage in modern literature than the Waterloo chapter in" Vanity Fair," where the rumours of the unseen battle form an accompaniment to the anxieties and projects of the perso nage* cf th: story, to they wait for the mulls at Brttiocb, SPIRIT OP THE PUBLIC JOU-BELLS, Was not peculiar to him ; it is more or less a characteristic of the age. It savours the talk even of the yotlng men and women of the present day; it is visible in the ascetic spirit of pre-Raphaelite art; it permeates our prose literature, and even makes itself felt in the utterances of the newspaper press ; it rings with a sweet sad music in the verse of Tennyson and of the Brownings. Oid social forms and transmitted ideas have broken up before the ad vance of knowledge, and reconstruction has not in all things kept pace with demolition. The times aro not only " out of joint," but morbidly observant of the fact. This may be only the sickening for a higher life ; but the effect is sometimes that of a conscious death. Poverty, ignorance, sin, and crime weigh on our minds and hearts more heavily than they used to dc—not because they are greater in degree than formerly, but because we are made more incessantly aware of them by the restless activity of the press. We burn with a rapid and eager flame as life burns in consump tion ; and a mournful sense of evanescence and incomplete ness—of change, and loss, and want, and unsatisfied aspira tion—lies for ever at the core of our perceptions of all things. Thus it comes to pass that the leading authors of the day are almost all shadowed with this brooding melancholy. Dickens is perhaps the only conspicuous exception among living men; in him, a hearty physical nature, and a spirit of jovial enjoyment, have acted as antidotes to the sadder tendencies of the age. Thackeray tasted to the full all that is sorrowful in our limes, and gave it out again, like a quintessence, in his books. Yet we must not confound the gloom of the present generation with that of the one preceding it—the sadness of Thackeray and the sadness of Byron. The two are distinct species of the same genus. The earlier form was saturnine, despairful, passionate, and protesting—now angrily struggling with fate, now sar donically mocking it• The later development is resigned, tranquil, half-amused in the midst of its teals, inclined to make the best of things as far as it can, but thinking th best, after all, a rather poor affair, He whom we have lost so recently, and whom we yet mourn, will live in the thoughts of our posterity chiefly as a novelist ; yet he had great claims also as an essayist and a critic. The qualities and habits of his mind directed him more to the writers of the time of Anne and the early Georges than to any others in onr mighty range of authorship ; and he found in them the models of the purely literary part of his writings. He seems to have been less attracted by the lurid lights and shades, the gloom and glory, and withal the somewhat extravagant end feverish painting, of the men con temporary with Shakespeare ; and to have turned with a kindred spirit to the even grace, the polished irony. the fine worldly sense, the burning sarcasm, and the consum mate execution of Addison, Steele, Swift, Pope, and Sterne. In feeling, he was a product of thts age ; in style, he was a product of that; and the union of the two, together with his own piercing insight into the ways and thoughts of men, made him a tally original genius. lie has left his stamp upon the century. How far the impression will be permanent, and how for his influence has been healthy, this is not the time to estimate. At prssent, we stand by his new-made grave, and can only mourn and praise.— London Review. ABERDEEN GRAMMAR SCHOOL AND LORD BYRON. Among other traditions, one of the most fascinating is that of Lord Byron's connection with the grammar school at Aberdeen. When, in 1792, Byron's mother had sepa rated from her husband, the profligate Captain Byron, of the Guards, she, being by birth a Miss Gordon of Gicht in Aberdeenshire, had retired to Aberdeen with her little lame London-born boy, then not quite five years old, and with about £l3O a year saved from her fortune which her hus band had squandered. The little fellow, living with his mother in the Breadgate, and cstching up the Aberdeen dialect, which be never quite forgot, learnt his first lessons from two or three private tutors in succession, the last of whom he mentions as "a very serious, satutnine, but kind young man, named Patterson," the son of his shoemaker, but a good scholar. "With him," he says, "I began Latin in Ruddiman'a Grammar, and continued till I went to the Grammar School (Seotics 4 Schule),' Aberdonies Squeen, where I threaded all the classes to the fourth, when I was recalled to England, where I had been hatched, by the de mise of my uncle." The fact thus lightly mentioned by Byron was, as may be supposed, no small splendour in the annals of Aberdeen. There were many alive in the town who remembered the lame boy well, and some who had been his schoolfellows. We u-ed to fancy the "faction" in which he had oftenest 'sat; and there was no small search for his name or initials, reported to be still visible, cut by his own hand, on one of the " factions"—always, I believe, without succes3. One school -legend about him greatly im pressed us. It was said that, on his coming to school the first morning after his accession to the peerage was known, and on the calling out of his name in the catalogue no longer as " Georgi Gordon Byron," but as " Georgi, Baro de Byron," ho did not reply with the usual and expected " Adsum," but, feeling the gaze of all his schoolfellows, burst intd tears and ran out. But there are half a hun dred Aberdeen myths about Byron, and this may be one of them.—From Macmillan's Magazine far January. [ADIrERTISEMENT.]—HoIIoway's Pills.—The reputation of these purifying pills for maintaining, preserving, or re storing the health needs no confirmation here. The per sonal testimony of thousands who have regained strength and comfort by means of Holloway's Medicine should out weigh any distrust which invalids, who have never tried them, may naturally feel. The action of the ?ills is so mildly alterative and tonic that it cannot shock the moat infirm constitution, or debilitate the weakest frame. The Pills give fresh vigour to the stomach and natural activity to the liver, kidneys, and bowels. Holloway's harralez,s and efficient medicines has been in constant use for neirly thirty years, and its present popularity proves how highly its virtues ban bcca epprecietcd ty the public t4'; !arse, EXAMINER ,—We did sonic injustice to Colonel Crawley when we characterised ate of unm a tched irrationality his argument that th e g uilt of klle un tried prisoner Lilley was to be assumed from tae fact of the legality of his arrest. We had, indeed, overlooked the reasoning of the President of the Court upon the same point, and carrying the absur dity still farther. " We may assume," said he, " that Sergeant Major Lilley was a culprit to the fullest extent, in consequence of the stringent orders green by superior authority for his clos e arrest." It is a corollary, then, that the close arrest of an untried man under the stringent orders of an officer in superior authority is tantamount to a conviction of his guilt to the fullest extent. What need, then, of trial, unless:indeed it be to conform to the model of justice established by the famous judge in the courts below,Rhadamanthus, who heard what his prisoners had to say in their defence after conviction and punishment. If it is to be presumed that a man is guilty because by high authority he has been placed in close arrest, the fact must carry with it such a load of prejudice as to make the forms of trial a mere mockery. Ex parte the prisoner is con demned. To hear both sides is a rule of justice ignored by the President of the Aldershot Court Martial. The hearing of one side is, in his judg ment, enough to warrant an assumption of guilt. The Colonel had made his charge to the Generals, and the Generals, assuming it to be true, had di rected the close confinement of the accused, and from that, says the President of a Court of Military Jus tice, it was to be assumed that the prisoner was " a culprit to the fullest extent." Assumption of guilt throughout, and nothing but assumption To what purpose, then, do the Articles of War so carefully provide trial for the accused within reason able time, if the orders of a general officer, in high command can prejudge the whole case, causing guilt to be assumed to the fullest extent alleged ? The great Roman satirist asks, in the case of a man con demned under the worst tyranny— . . Sed quo cecidit sub crimine ? Quisnam Delator? Quibus indiciis? Ruo teste probatit ? Nil horum. Verbosa et grandis epistola venit. A Capreis: belie habet, nil plus interrigo. In Lilley's case there was, indeed, the delator, but all the rest was wanting—the proof, the witnesses; but not wanting the letter from head-quarters, grandis et verbosa, which settled the matter. The close arrest was directed without any view to trial, and from that close arrest it is asserted that guilt was to be presumed to the fullest extent, no trial following to enable the prisoner to prove his innocence if indeed it could be possible to do so against the avowed preju dice arising from the mere fact of the orders for a strict sequestration. A preliminary injustice may thus be made the warrant for a final injustice. There is no remedy. There is the treatment upon which is based the assumption of guilt, and there an end, no trial following, nor having been contemplated by the superior authority, whose avowed object was to prevent, not to deal with offence. Sir Wm. Mansfield, indeed, had to confess that there was not evidence to support the charge of conspiracy, upon which, nevertheless, he ordered the prisoners to be detained in custody, in defiance of the Articles of War, which would have given them the benefit either of trial or liberation. But of what avail are articles of war if military Dogberrys can be permitted to assume guilt from the arrest which follows accusation, whether false or true. And how monstrous is it to hear this pro pounded as doctrine by the President of a military tribunal, and what a key it gives us to decisions that have hitherto seemed unaccountable. The first maxim of justice, the presumption of innocence, is reversed if a rigorous confinement be directed by a superior authority, and though in the very order, the admission be made that there are not grounds to support the charge! Lilley was a culprit to the fullest extent, because confined by the direction of the Commander-in-Chief, who found no evidence against him to go to trial. We have to thank a cor respondent for re-citing the memorandum of the Duke of Cambridge, of December, 1862. We thought at the time that the force of the reprimand cotivelikieot only to Colonel Crawley, but also to the peealetaerals, was not sufficiently understood, nor .thisapiatice inspiring it duly appreciated. And we are aware than ever confirmed in that opinion. There is tie acquittal in that judgment, and none of its effect is cancelled by the court-martial, which has sealed the condemnation of courts-martial as now constituted and conducted. We may indeed wish that the Duke of Cambridge had gone further and brought to justice the injustice he censured, but to the extent to which his Royal Highness went nothing could be better, and never in fewer words was so much merited censure conveyed. LONDON REVIEW.—The Schleswig-Holstein ques tion becomes daily more threatening to the peace of Europe. Led on by the minor princes, the German people have cast off all the restraints of prudence, and all regard for the probable consequences of the war towards which they are recklessly hurrying. Meetings of delegates from the various representa tive assemblies clamour for the immediate separa ration of the duchies from Denmark. Prince Fre derick of Augustenburg is openly raising an army for the invasion of tee provinces which he claims. And as the forces charged with the levy of Federal execution in Holstein take possession of town after town, his Grand-ducal Highness is proclaimed eovereign of the country. It is true, the Federal Cemmissioners formally dis avow complicity with acts that are utterly inconsistent with their own proceedings which im pliedly recognise Christian IX. as Duxe of Holstein. But they take no steps whatever to arrest the revo lutionary movement ; and their feeble protests only serve to show how powerless are the Governments most interested in preserving peace, to control or even to check the mania which has seized upon the Teutonic race. Indeed there is too much reason to fear that Austria and Prussia have given up the at tempt, are on the eve of throwing off the obligations imposed upon them by the Treaty of London, and are preparing to cast themselves headlong into the popular tide. Their proposition to the Diet to occupy Schleswig as a means of compelling Denmark to revoke the November Constitution is little, if at all, short of a declaration of war. If it be adopted—and there is no reason to hope that it will be rejected — the Danes have but one course open to them. They can not submit to such dictation on a point on which the Diet have no jurisdiction without virtually placing themselves at the feet of a conqueror. If the Federal execution had been conducted with a decent regard for the rights of Christian IX. as Duke of Holstein, and if no threats of occupying Schleswig had been held out, it might have been expedient to withdraw the Constitution in order to give time and opportunity for negotiations. It is, doubtful, however, whether the high spirit of the Danes would even then have tolerated this measure, al though it is understood to have been urged by Eng land, Russia, and Sweden. It is impossible to advise a concession which is evidently meant as the first step towards that dismemberment of Denmark which is the avowed object of the German people. Nothing appears left to the Danes but to make the best re sistance in their power. We cannot believe that they will be left without allies. The other Scandi navian nations must see that the cause of Denmark is their own ; nor can England, France, or Russia, without violating their plighted faith, permit the se paration of Schleswig. We tear there is but little hopof averting war now that statesmen have resigned the reins to agitators. And if war once breaks out who will venture to speculate on its extent or duration ? Austria, at any rate, should feel some alarm at the prospect before her. For the Italians are already preparing to welcome the long desired opportanity of liberating Venetia, and Kossuth is once more ad dressing the Hungarians. Louis Napoleon makes no sign, but the most demented German professor can scarcely fancy that his apathy indicates indifference. The new year does indeed open stormily. To all appearance Europe is on the brink of a general war, arising out of a dispute of the paltriest charac ter, and brought on by the maddest folly which ever took possession of a nation. It would be ludicrous, if the possible consequences were not so terrible, to see men who are themselves tyrannised over by a host of petty despots embarking on a crusade for the liberation of those who are already in the en joyment of freedom : to see a country which has long bewailed its internal dissensions recklessly exposing itself to the threatened attacks of two powerful neighbours for the sake of filchinga petty province, and to see in the van of this war of nationality Powers which, like Austria and Prussia, hold in subjection Poles, Italians, and Hungarians. SPECTATOR.—At the late Buckinghamshire elec tion the hero of the nomination day was, to our mind, the Liberal candidate, Dr. Lee, of Hartwell Park. He is described as a mild and gentlemanly looking country squire, of very venerable mien, and his antagonist, Mr. Harvey, courteously ad mitted him to be " of acknowledged ability, of wide astronomical and meteorological celebrity, of broad acres, and of good county family." If to this we add that from his courtesy and benevolence he is equally beloved by his friends and tenantry, it would seem that the Liberals were provided with a model candidate, and so indeed they were, for a Caristmas election. When the venerable old man, with his . gray hairs, and voice " feeble, but dis tinct," came to the front of the hustings, it seemed as if we had got back to an older election in Worcestershire, which is as real to this genera tion as if it had actually happened. For of the can didate for Buckingha ashire we may truly say that " all who know that shire are very well acquainted with his parts and merits. He is a gentleman that is very singular in his behaviour, but his singularh ties proceed from his good sense, and are contradic tions to the manners of the world, only as he thinks i iii '"zld 'mug. ilowev;:r, this humour COUNTRY MARKETS. .t , .--- - NORWICII-SATURDAY. There was the usual attendance of farmers at market to day, and a fair supply of wheat was offering. There was a better feeling in the trade, and prices may be considered is per qr dearer than on this day se'nnight. There was a fair supply of barley, and last week's prices were supported. In oats, beans, and peas not much doing. Flour without alteration—white 44s to 465, red 40s to 42s per qr. White wheat. ..... 448 to 46. 1 Red wheat 43s to 42s Nlalting barley ...36s to 37s o 1 Chevalier barley 34s t 35s Distilling d 0..... 30s to 32s I Oats. to 263 Flour, 28s Od to —s Od per sack from the miller NOTTING HAM—SATunDAY. There was a fair show of wheat at this corn exchange to day, and the condition of the samples was decidedly im proved. Out-door work is going on satisfactorily in this .neighbourhood. The demand was good, and sales were generally made at is per qr over late rates. White wheat, from 40s to 45s ; red wheat, 39s to 425. Barley—malting, 30s to 40s ; grinding, 27s to 30s. Oats old, at 248 to 31s Od; new, 20s to 255. Beans sold at 388 to 43s per qr. ; new, 35s to 375. GRANTHAM—SATURDAY. Old white wheat, 44s to 48s ; red, 39s to 42s per 36st. ; new white, 40s to 458; red, 328 to 428. Malting barley, 33s to 36s per qr ; grinding, 288 to 30s ; oats, old, 24s t? 28s ; new, 20s to24s ; beans, 388 to 408; peas, 34s to 365. NORTHAMPTON-SATURDAY. -• At this corn market to-day there was a better attendance than on the week previous, but the show of wheat was by no means ai:undant. The young wheat plant is looking well around here. There was a firm feeling in the trade, end holders refused to sell except at an advance of is per qr. on late rates. White wheat, 40s to 45s ; red, 37s to 40s ; fine, to —s per qr. Barley, 35s to 37s—grinding, 28s to 325. Oats, 28s to 32s per A stone. Beans, 38s to 425. Peas; 34s to 40s per qr. YORK-S. ,TITRDAY. We were supplied with a fair quantity of wheat to-day from the growers. Prices generally maintained for good dry lots, with an improving demand. Wheat, red 38s to 41s Oats.... lBs to 203 White do .42s to 46s Beans 3& to 403 Barley .28s to 32s Peas .....--`s to - ---8 Malt, 58s to 60s per qr. ; rye, 32s per qr.; flour, 303 to 32s per sack. LEICESTER—SITunDAY. We had a moderate show of wheat on offer at this corn market, there being a sprinkling of red and white descrip tions. Field work is in a forward state. There was an improvement in the trade, and prices advanced is per qr. New white wheat, 40s to 45s ; red, 38s to 418 per 368 stone. Old red, 39s to 41s per 3e stone. Barley, malting, new, 33s to 38s per qr.; grinding, 29s to 325; old oats, 25s to 30s; new oats, 22s to 25s per 24 stone. Beans, old, 38s to 42s per 38 stone ; flour, 30s to 358 per 20 stone. Foreign Mail Packet List. MAILS DUE. Australia and Mauritius, via Southampton Jan. 18. via Marseilles Jan. 12. Lirazil and Cape Verds, by British packet. Jan. 4. Cape of Good Hope, Ascension, and. Sr. Helena Jan. 29. ohina, Penang, and Singapore, via Southanipton Jan. 2. via Marseilles Jan. ----. Falkland Islands Gibraltar, via Southampton .. Jan. 2. India (Calcutta), and Ceylon, via Southampton.. Jan. 2. via Marseilles.... Jan. —, India (Bombay), via Southampton .. Jan. 11. via Marseilles Jan. jan. 5. Portuga1.... Malta, Egypt, and Aden, via Southampton Jan. 2 . via Marseilles Newfoundland Oporto and Vigo .. U. S. and British N. America, by Brit. packet.... Jan. 6 by U.S. packet.... by Canadian packet.. Jan 1. W.C. of Africa, Madeira, and Teneritle Jan. 10. Bahamas, via New York Jan. 14. Mexico .... Jan. —. All parts of West Indies, including Chili, Peru, 1 Jan... .. California. and British Columbia. WHAT IS VULGARLY CALLED "A TWISTER !" As exemplified by the description of a Stomach watching its hard tasks come down to it from the s egionts above between dinner and bedtime.—First comes a plate of soup and bread, and a glass of sherry; " I can manage , that," says the Stomach. Then a plate of fish, with more bread and more sherry "and thas," adds the Stomach, " though these sauces don't quite agree with me." Theo comes beef, or mutton, or both, and stout ; then game and sherry ; then a dish of tart; " Confound this pastry," s'l the Stomach, "it gives me more trouble than anytbit else ; but if the master will only stop here, I think, if I put out all my powers, I can get even this rubbish out of th 9 way." But she has hardly taken this hopeful view of the what case, when down come cheese, celery , app les, orange., nu fi g s, almonds and raisins, port , s herr y , claret, and a turnbltesr° eofvehrostuiclholalamndessaa?nd, wexactleari.ms the"G osotodragacrhac:oeu,s; at was can therethe man mean? Does be think one pair of hands can ikanage all this ?" Still the willing slave goes to work, when presently there is a rush of hot tea from above, with a thin slice of bread-and-butter. Aid when the Stomach with infinite labour has got the hodge-podge into some sort of homogeneous shape, and is preparing to take a nap after exhaustion, lo I a devilled drumstick rushes into its labora tory, two devilled kidneys, a bottle of stout, and three tumblers of hot brandy and water. THE MEANING OF " WILLIAIL"—Deriyed, frog' the language of the old Teutonic race, Wil-helm, the helmet of many, signifies one who protects and defends many. Willi or Vili is still preserved in the German ".viel," many; so too is " helm," with the identical mesa' ing of old (which grew out of the word " hilms.''), to cover; Inthe Icelandic " hialmr" is helmet; in the Saxon" holan signified to cover, to protect ; in our own language, derived from those above mentioned, familiar to all is the " plume d helm" of Shakepeare and all our poets. Scarcely less beau' tiful is the other meaning of this doubly significant name, the Saxon " helma" signifying the helm or upper part of the rudder, which is grasped by the steersman who guided the ship. Is not our common name of William, then, 0 ' name to live up to ? A helmet of defence, a protector ; ore , helmsman, a guide to many ! To those who care for the significance of names there is a delight in reading the " Life of William Pitt," at the appropriateness of the name to " the pilot who weathered the storm."—So.o 9 Moode's What's your Name? [ADVERTISEMENT.]—consumption, an nervous, bilious, liver, and stomach complaints, in every stage, are only ag: gravatei and accelerated by drugs of every description, but perfectly curable by Du Barry's health restoring Revaleut e Arabica Food, as proved by thousands of cases which had been considered hopeless. We quote a few.—Cure No. 62,9 0 : Miss Lange, 18 years of age, cured after the medical men lute, abandoned all hopes of her recovery from the last stage 0 pulmonary consumption, with fearful cough, expectoration/ exhaustion, spitting of blood, perspirations, hollow cheek e , emaciated to a skeleton. She is now, thank God, a perfectly healthy, blooming, fleshy girl.—N. Lange, Commissaire d Police. Cure, No. 46,270. Mr. James Roberts, of Frimlei Surrey, of thirty years' diseased lungs, spitting of blood, Wet derangement, and partial deafness.—Cure, No. 47,121. Mis° Elizabeth Jacobs, of extreme nervousness, indigestioe+ gatherings, low spirits, and nervous fancies.—Cure, No' 64,816. Me Rev. James T. Campbell, Fakenham, Norfogo of indigestion and torpidity of the liver, which had resisted all medical treatment. In tins, 11b, 2s 9d; 2111, 48 6d; 6 11 /' 121 b, 225; 24111, 40$. Barry du Barry and Co., No. 7 1 ', Regent-street, London ; also Fortnum and Mason; and 1 grocers and chemists in every town of the United Kingdone Births. Boons—On the 31st ult., at Castle House, Forest, Wil l. thamstow, the wife of Arthur Booty, Esq. , of a son. CooDE—On the Ist inst., at 18, South Audley-street, XI" William Coode, of a son. PEILE—On the Ist inst., at 2, Norland.terrace, NottiOr hill, the wife of Bransby Cooper Peile, of a daughter. HARWARD—On the Ist inst., at 1, Wellington-terrace, 0 : John's-wood, the wife of Gainsborough, Esq., of " daughter. Marriages. WHITE—DAvY—On the 29th ult., at St. Mary Abbot t, Kensington, by the Rev. Wm. Wright, Alfred liende n t i son White, Esq., 3d Dragoon Guards, youngest 801 1 Lieut.-General Sir Michael White, K,C.8., to lqt" ,f" Risden only child of Edwin R. Davy, Esq., of Pilo o Devonshire. No cards. WOOD—KIRKWOOD—OiI the 31st ult., at St. Mary's, lington, Austin Wood, of 12, Parkfield-street, fourth e ° of the late R. M. Wood, of Aldersgate-street, to sosl eldest daughter of the late Thomas Kirkwood, of 9 Milner-square, Islington. No cards. Deaths. ADA.ltt—On the 27th ult., at Florence, Richard Brati c g s Adair, Captain half pay Royal Artillery, aged 43, Od e ' son of the late Major-General Adair, C.B. cstl l ARCHER—On New - Year's-Eve, at Springfield, in her .- n f year, Sally, widow of the late Thomas Archer, Esq. , - Chelmsford. 1 10 COURTNEY—On the Ist inst., Mr..M. W. Courtney, in 63d year of his age. COMONFORT—On the 13th Nov. last, aged 51, the ex-r t re e ; sident of Mexico, General Ignacio Jomontort, Mini s ' 4 of War and Commander-in-Chief of the Mexican ArOJ. His loss is deplored by all. R.I.P. GODLEY—On the 31st ult., at Killegar, county of Lei 'VW" I: eland, John Godley, aged 88. f HARVEY—On Thursday, the 31st ult., at Princes-O r Liverpool, aged 31, Thomas H. Harvey, Esq., solicitc?ri:e, GuEta--On the 31st u lt., at Corraith House, Ayr 'q, Mrs. Greig, of L ev y, re lict of the late James (ireig, T- 45 '" of Levy, in Lerwick, Shetland. London: PririZed and rublished by WILLIAM AND 1 01 1: : :: of No. 112, Strand, Printer, at THE SUN Office .NO . , f 'Strand, fn Preeinet of the :.:savoy, ,n the Cot.u 3=l ' gencoi, January i o 1861.. It